With everything going on in the world right now, I almost forgot about Easter. The days have started to blur together (is it Monday? Wednesday? Is it still March??), and even though I’ve been seeing Easter candy at the pharmacies, I go out of the house so infrequently that I just kind of forgot… Anyways, the last time I went out I bought a bag of mini eggs. The result are these cute speckled mini egg cupcakes.
Chocolate cake with blue cream cheese frosting. The speckle is some concentrated coffee, which I managed to splatter everywhere…
Have you been to NYC and tried the infamous still-warm, perfectly melty but crispy, chocolate chip walnut Levain cookies?? I’m the kind of person who doesn’t necessarily believe the hype, but I’m always game to check out a “must-try” food. The cookies at Levain are a must try, and they are worth the wait! It’s been a number of years since I tried these, but these copycat recipes have been popping up all over my social media lately, so I decided to give it a go!
I primarily used this recipe, with a couple of tweaks (I toasted my nuts first, I included a splash of vanilla, I chilled the dough 24 hours, etc.). This recipe was not quite perfect, but it was darn close! Next time I will use less chocolate (personal preference), I will try chopped milk chocolate instead of 60%, and I will make larger (but flatter) balls of dough (even though my cookies were pretty big, I ended up with double the number of cookies the recipe called for. I used 1/3 cup per cookie). I’m starting with trying to master the chocolate chip walnut cookie. If I master that one, I might branch out.. I personally love their double-chocolate version as well, but I saw a version that included biscoff butter, and I might have to give that a shot too!
Here’s another cookie that I will never be making again: Chocolate-dipped almond shortbread.
Where do I start with these cookies? It was supposed to be a simple shortbread recipe. I make shortbread all the time (and I adore shortbread!) so I thought: why not! When I have the time, I really enjoy the process of rolling out dough and using my cookie cutters to create cute shapes. I find this process much more gratifying than a simple drop cookie. I was excited to make these cookies into little heart or flower shapes but, as you can see, that didn’t happen.
While the dough came together easily enough, it was pretty crumbly in the bowl. Sometimes, when you are working with shortbread, working the dough with your hands can really help it come together because it slightly warms the butter. I worked the dough with my hands for quite a while, and it was… ok. The recipe said to chill the dough for a couple hours, and then roll it out. Chilling the dough makes sure that the butter is cold when you bake the cookies, and creates that delicious flakey texture that shortbread are known for. While the dough didn’t look great, I decided to trust the recipe, and put my dough into some plastic wrap to chill. Two hours of chilling later, however, and my cookie dough was completely un-rollable. “Maybe it just needs a while to come to room temperature” I thought to myself. But no… After leaving the dough on the counter for an hour or so, it was no better. I’ve worked with stiff dough before (which just requires a little more muscle to roll out), but this dough was like a brick. It was not going to roll.
What’s a girl to do in this situation? Desperate times call for desperate measures. So I pounded on the dough to reduce it back to crumbs in a bowl. I added a couple tablespoons of water to see if that would help it stick together. It took a surprising amount of water to get one cohesive ball of dough, and the texture still didn’t feel great to me. I decided that I would try to chill the dough in a log formation so that (if worse came to worse, and it was still un-rollable) I could at least slice and bake. Even getting the dough into the log formation was a bit of a hassle, as chunks kept breaking off. Anyways, as you can see, the second attempt was also not rollable. So we went with the whole “slice and bake”, and “cover it with chocolate so people don’t know” method.
But, of course… The chocolate didn’t set either, creating a horrible mess and making them frustrating to transport or serve.
Now, I know you’re wondering “But, after all that drama, did they at least taste good???”
And my answer is: “They tasted…. fine….”
Next time I want shortbread I’m sticking to my old reliable back-of-the-cornstarch-container recipe.
I’m not entirely sure why these are called “cowboy” cookies. I think the way I made them, they’re more like a “kitchen sink” cookie – I had a bunch of little bits of chocolate chips lying around, so I just threw them all into the batter, along with the oats and coconut and pretzels that the recipe called for. My only regret is that I didn’t add a handful of chopped nuts… I’ll have to try that next time! So here are the cowboy pretzel cookies:
I made them with some high-quality semi-sweet chocolate discs, milk chocolate chips, and mini chocolate chips. This makes them delightfully chocolate-y, but also makes every bite a little different because the chocolate melts differently. I think using a mix of chips, discs, and chunks for choc chip cookies is a good strategy moving forward!
I’ve been having great fun using my new KitchenAid mixer! The journey to getting the mixer was a saga in and of itself (there were many mix-ups, missed deliveries, lost parts, wrong colours, etc.), but I finally ended up with a mixer plus a bonus: a 3-piece shredder/slicer set. I was keen to try out these attachments. I don’t use shredded vegetables too often, but I thought some kind of zucchini loaf would be the perfect excuse to try the attachment. This recipe (which I have posted on my blog before here and here) was perfect because it calls for shredded zucchini and carrots. It also has a bunch of other yummy things like banana, cinnamon, walnuts, and coconut oil, which makes it one of my go-to recipes when I want to make muffins or a loaf.
Anyways – the shredder attachment works like a dream! Easy, fast, and efficient. Much better (and less messy) than grating carrots by hand. I must find more zucchini loaf or carrot cake recipes to make just so I can use the shredder more often! Do you have any to suggest? Let me know in the comments 🙂
Earlier this month, my Mom came out to Montreal for a visit. February is not exactly the best time of year to come to Montreal, because the winters here are pretty bad. Thankfully, we are both pretty happy staying indoors and puttering around the house (baking, reading, watching Netflix, etc.). While she was here, my mom made me one of her favourite recipes from childhood: walnut squares.
These treats are basically a blondie base with lots of walnuts, topped with a thick layer of delicious brown sugar icing. What’s not to like!? Tastes even better when served with a huge mug of hot tea and a funny movie, while it continues to snow outside. Thanks for the visit (and the baking), Mom!
Regular readers know that I’m trying to work my way through a huge jug of maple syrup, so here’s the latest maple baking adventure: Maple thumbprint cookies! I wish you could smell them… I added just a pinch of flaky salt to the top to cut some of the sweetness of the maple icing. They are easy and yummy afternoon treats!
I always find by about this time of the year, I’m ready to be done with Winter. Unfortunately, it’s only the beginning of February, and in Montreal, that means there are at least two (maybe three) months of cold winter left… So I made some caramel vanilla cupcakes and decorated them a frosty blue. I added some blue-toned Lindt truffles in the background to keep the moody blue atmosphere. At least even in the dead of winter, there are still cupcakes.
Afternoon tea is one of my favourite dining experiences. I love the china, the small bites, the mix of sweet and savoury, and the fact that it’s an un-rushed experience. Last weekend, I went out for high tea with some girlfriends to the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth. As usual, I forgot to take pictures of the people, but have pictures of most of the food…!
For our savoury tier, we enjoyed a smoked salmon macaron, foie gras terrine, hard boiled egg with lobster, cucumber maki, and cauliflower financier with pepper jam.
The sweets tier had an orange meringue tart, fruit tart, raspberry hazelnut cake, and a chocolate opera cake (not shown). We also had the traditional scones with jams and Devonshire cream.
I loved the food and the chance to catch up with friends!
I got a KitchenAid Stand Mixer for Christmas! I’m having tons of fun playing with my new mixer, and I am especially excited for all the breads that I can make now that I have a mixer and dough hook to do all the kneading for me. I have already tried a few different kinds of dinner rolls, but last weekend I decided to try making some small batch cinnamon rolls. The recipe called for apple pie filling, but I decided to go with just the classics: butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. These little guys didn’t rise much on the first rest, so I was a bit worried, but they turned out great! (A little too brown, perhaps, but still delicious!)
I photographed them without the frosting purely for aesthetics (how cute is that cinnamon swirl?!). I can guarantee you those babies were slathered with cream cheese goodness before being heartily devoured.
Diana H Lim 